The Divine in the Ordinary

A child in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes. His mother and father, obviously poor, huddled around, the stench of animals also hanging around.

If I was to walk by this scene, what would I do? Hold my nose and keep walking? Offer the parents a couple of bucks?

Would I have the eyes to see the divine in the mundane? Would I have stopped to worship in awe and wonder? Would my heart recognize my Lord and Savior?

Would I have realized that this humble family is my role model? Would I want them to be, just upon a glimpse? The divine, though almost unapparent, is present to the eyes of faith and a heart of love. The divine is present every day.

The divine is present in the child who needs my help, the husband who needs some of my time with him alone, a teen who needs some compassionate guidance and a family living together and trying to love one another. The divine is present in the homeless man holding a sign on the street corner, the addict fighting his addiction, the unwed mother raising her child alone. The divine is present in a small, white piece of unleavened bread.

The divine can be present if we just believe and pray. Then our minds will be set on what’s above. When we return to our everyday work, we can see things differently.

We will see St. Joseph in our husbands working hard day in and day out to provide for the family. We will see Jesus in the helpless baby that craves our warm touch and comfort; in the toddler who needs help dressing; in the child eager to explore the beautiful world around him; in the teen who temporarily gets a little lost.

Jesus is present in the child who desires to help mom do something. Moreover, we will recognize in the simple, little object that a child makes out of love all the beauty of God’s creation.

If we want to be the image of the Holy Family, we must see the divine in the mundane, ordinary things of life.

About Author

God has given Kelly lots of wonderful opportunities to follow Him. She was a Dominican Sister of St. Cecilia in Nashville, an education coordinator for a Catholic Charities' program for pregnant teens, a middle school teacher, a director of religious education and is now a youth minister. Her most challenging and rewarding calling, though, is wife and mother of ten children. What she has learned, she blogs at CatholicMom.com.

7 Comments

This was so true, and so beautifully written. It was easy to see the divine within the words on my screen- comforting, peaceful, reassuring. Thank you for writing this remarkable piece. Blessings to you and your beautiful family!

This is a very wonderful article, I thought that we would know that this is the Christ because of the bright stars, that were also leading the shepherds, and the wise men, but it is very true that Christ comes in the everyday things of life, we will have to look more closly

I went to an Amy Grant concert and she gave an awesome illustation that the furthest we can push God away is an arms length. He is always close, every day and every moment. We just need to slow down and acknolwlege His prescence. Thanks for the reminder.